Newcastle Is Crowdfunding Their Super Bowl Ad

Football is a team sport, and if Newcastle has anything to do with it, so will the company’s Super Bowl Ad. Inspired by the success of crowdfunding, Newcastle has introduced Band of Brands, a new campaign asking for brands to pool their marketing budgets together in the name of Super Bowl advertising glory.

Hosted on a dedicated microsite, Newcastle kicked off its Super Bowl advertisement crowdfunding initiative with a sassy video starring Aubrey Plaza. In the video, Aubrey quips, “Why do big brands have all the fun? Shouldn’t the little guys have a chance?”

If all goes as planned, Newcastle could cram as many as 20 to 30 brands into a Super Bowl commercial. Although this would be no small task, Newcastle assures that the end result will be “an ad we can all be proud of.”

The company has not disclosed how much of a monetary commitment they would like from each brand, but with 30-second spots reportedly going for up to $4.5 million, an even split between 30-brands would be around $150,000.

Interested brands had until January 19th to enter and register their interest to Newcastle. Naturally, not just any brand with money can make the cut. More disclosure, hinting at which brands may not be a fit, can be found in the comically written legal language on the site:

“We can’t partner with everyone, and as an alcohol beverage company, we would not want to jointly advertise with any brands appealing to persons under the legal drinking age, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, we’re just extremely picky.”

(Sidebar: Share this lingo with your legal team. T&Cs can be fun!)

The key takeaway from this initiative is the innovative use of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding has become increasingly more mainstream, but seeking brand-to-brand crowdfunding for a Super Bowl spot is likely a first. (Tweet This)

So, will it work? It wouldn’t be surprising for this initiative to pique the interest of similarly-sized brands, as the publicity around this has been strong. There’s something inspiring about a few brands with smaller marketing budgets coming together for their moment in the spotlight at the Super Bowl.

However, publicity will only go so far. At the end of the day, the Super Bowl TV commercial also needs to be innovative. Should Newcastle continue to think outside of the box and partner with interesting brands, this may just live up to the company’s goal of delivering “the most exciting, jam-packed, fiscally responsible game day ad ever.”